1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to computer-aided product manufacture and distribution and, more particularly, to a method and system for assembly, manufacture and distribution of custom xe2x80x9cdataxe2x80x9d products, such as a CD (read only), CD (read/write), DVD or similar static storage medium (collectively, a xe2x80x9cCDxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cCD-ROMxe2x80x9d), especially a CD product incorporating customer-selected musical sound recordings.
2. Description of the Related Art
The standard model for the manufacture and distribution of music is well-established in the entertainment industry. With the explosive growth of the Internet, however, it is now possible to transfer large amounts of digital data electronically. Thus, the Internet has the capability of being a useful medium for transfer of digital data comprising sound recordings. To this end, it has been proposed to provide an xe2x80x9cinteractivexe2x80x9d World Wide Web (xe2x80x9cWWWxe2x80x9d) site at which users may create their own xe2x80x9ccustomxe2x80x9d CD-ROMs. Using an interactive xe2x80x9cfill-in formxe2x80x9d type of interface, the user selects a plurality of sound recordings from a library or catalog of available recordings. Once the CD selections are made, the user is prompted for a credit card number. The credit card is verified, and the CD-ROM is then manufactured and delivered to the user.
Although the above-described system has the advantage of enabling a user of the Internet to create a custom CD product, there are no currently available sites from which a broad range of musical recordings may be assembled, nor are the sites or assembly operations scaleable to facilitate large scale operations. Moreover, such sites do not provide significant tracking, inventory control and other administrative and management tools to facilitate such a large-scale operation.
The present invention addresses this problem.
It is a primary goal of the present invention to provide a custom CD assembly, manufacturing and distribution method and system.
It is a more specific object of this invention to enable a customer to assemble or create a user-defined xe2x80x9csetxe2x80x9d of musical recordings from a massive library or archive of such recordings. After selection, the set of recordings are xe2x80x9cassembledxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cburnedxe2x80x9d into a physical medium (such as a CD-ROM), preferably at a large-scale manufacturing or xe2x80x9cburningxe2x80x9d facility. Individual burner machines in the facility operate in an essentially autonomous or xe2x80x9cstandalonexe2x80x9d manner to facilitate large scale production of custom CD products. This xe2x80x9cburner-centricxe2x80x9d architecture facilitates continuous and efficient production of products as the service is scaled to handle very large number of orders in a concurrent fashion.
It is a more general object of the invention to implement a large-scale custom music CD service where custom CD-ROMs (or other such digital xe2x80x9cproductsxe2x80x9d) are ordered at retail establishments, over the Internet, by electronic communication (e.g., fax, e-mail, or the like) or over a conventional telephone connection.
It is still another object of this invention to implement a computer-assisted custom CD ordering, assembly, manufacturing and distribution service wherein a customer may easily track the entire manufacturing and delivery process at all operative stages.
It is yet another more general object of this invention to provide computer-aided ordering, assembly, manufacturing and distribution of digital data products.
It is yet another aspect of this invention to maintain, in the custom CD manufacturing system, certain information about a customer""s musical or data preferences, creditworthiness, and past buying habits, to thereby facilitate future product purchase transactions.
Another more specific object of this invention is to provide such a system for making, selling and distributing a custom digital data product over the Internet, in retail stores, via electronic communication, or over the telephone, wherein a customer is provided (preferably by electronic mail (xe2x80x9ce-mailxe2x80x9d) verification) with order tracking information.
According to the invention, a customer xe2x80x9cordersxe2x80x9d a custom product in a variety of ways. Thus, for example, a customer may create, order and purchase the product from a retail site and, in particular, through entry of information at a computer terminal in an online process. Preferably, but not necessarily, the computer terminal is a xe2x80x9cdisklessxe2x80x9d computer, also known as a xe2x80x9cnetworkxe2x80x9d computer. Alternatively, a user may create, order and purchase the product by accessing an Internet site from which the custom CD xe2x80x9cservicexe2x80x9d is provided. Another alternative is for the user to access a telephone network (such as an 800-number service), and to order the custom CD through interaction with a human or automated operator, or by fax or e-mail. Regardless of how the user accesses the system, it is assumed that the customer selects a xe2x80x9csetxe2x80x9d of sound recordings (or data) from a library or catalog of such recordings (or data), and he or she then determines the order of presentation of the selected recordings (or data). The library of available recordings is preferably supported by a massive xe2x80x9cdisk farm,xe2x80x9d which is preferably a relatively large collection of computers on which (or attached to which) are stored digital data comprising the available recordings (or data). Once the CD has been assembled in a manner to allow the system to automatically xe2x80x9cmanufacturexe2x80x9d the product, the product is preferably created at a dedicated manufacturing facility (e.g., a xe2x80x9cburner farmxe2x80x9d). The product is then shipped to the customer, or to some third party as may be requested by the customer.
Preferably, the individual song. tracks comprising the requested CD product are assembled at the burner farm. Alternatively, the customer (or the disk farm) may assemble the song data in a prior process and submit the assembled data (e.g., as a xe2x80x9ccompilationxe2x80x9d) to a burner machine directly or alternatively transmit the data electronically.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, a custom CD set is created in an online manner using an appropriate user interface. Then, the customer is prompted to enter appropriate information from which some form of payment is extracted. Thus, for example, the user may enter his or her credit card number through a secure interface (e.g., a secure sockets layer or xe2x80x9cSSLxe2x80x9d). Upon payment or credit verification, the set of data components (i.e., the song tracks) selected by the customer are caused to be transferred from the disk farm to the manufacturing facility, which preferably comprises a collection of machines that xe2x80x9cburnxe2x80x9d or otherwise generate the products. The set of components is sometimes referred to as an xe2x80x9cimagexe2x80x9d of the CD product. Preferably, the xe2x80x9cburnerxe2x80x9d farm (like the disk farm) comprises a large number of connected computers and associated burner machines useful in manufacturing CD-ROM (or other digital data) products. The system further includes appropriate control, administrative and management routines and devices as are necessary to ensure that a large number of products may be continually assembled, manufactured, packaged and shipped as multiple customers continually access the facility (e.g., through retail sites, the Web site, through direct electronic communication, and the like) and multiple product xe2x80x9cimagesxe2x80x9d are in turn transferred from the disk farm to the facility.
In a particular preferred embodiment, large scale processing of CD product orders is facilitated by operating a burner farm with many hundreds or even thousands of individual burner machines. The entire set of such machines is preferably organized into a hierarchy of subgroups, with each subgroup including approximately 30-50 individual burner machines, depending on available bandwidth, burn capability and other considerations. Upon initialization, however, each individual burner machine or server is self-directed or xe2x80x9cautonomousxe2x80x9d and thus takes on as much xe2x80x9cworkxe2x80x9d (e.g., new requests to burn CD products) as it is capable of handling given the network and subgroup load, and other operating conditions. The manufacturing facility is thus xe2x80x9cburner-centric,xe2x80x9d as individual burner machines or servers in the large set of such machines control their own destiny. This architecture is highly scaleable and efficient, and it facilitates processing of a very large number of concurrent orders as such orders are placed from the various order entry terminals and other means previously described.
Preferably, after an order is xe2x80x9cacceptedxe2x80x9d for processing, a customer is provided with an e-mail communication verifying the transaction. The e-mail message preferably also includes a xe2x80x9chyperlinkxe2x80x9d that includes an order confirmation or other order tracking identifying number(s). Activation of the hyperlink by the customer automatically launches the customer""s Web browser software to a Web site from which he or she may then track the manufacture of the actual product (i.e., during the various stages of assembly and burning of the CD-ROM). After the product has been manufactured and packaged, the customer preferably is provided with a second e-mail indicating that the product has been shipped. Preferably, the second e-mail also includes a hyperlink with an associated shipping tracking number. Upon activation of the hyperlink, the customer accesses the Web site (or some other site, such as a UPS(copyright) or Federal Express(copyright) site) and may then xe2x80x9cfollowxe2x80x9d the product as it moves to its intended destination through one or more distribution channels.